Snorri Sturluson
Keeper of Hugin and Munin
~BBW (Multiple), Eating, ~MWG - Four growing girls share a new life
by Snorri Sturluson
(Inspired by the earlier work of Flaming Hades)
[Author's Note: For those of you who may remember, "Dinner for Four" was originally posted by Flaming_hades, who never continued to the work and the story was subsequently moved to the discard forum. I liked something about it, though I can't say what, and decided to rewrite and expand it. This is a rather heavy rewrite; if more than three consecutive words remain from Hades' original version, I would be surprised. Something to note is that this is not meant as a “wiki wiki weight gain” story, and I hope it doesn't come across as such.]
Five young women sat around an old, heavily used, coffee table. They chatted animatedly about their summers - where they traveled, what they did, who they dated - while playing a fast paced game of BANG! A few rays of the amber August evening illuminated the otherwise poorly lit room.
Susan Barker, a chubby woman with long dirty blond hair, knew she had lost the moment she played her last BANG! card and missed. As the Sheriff, with only one bullet of life left, there was no way she'd survive another round. Instead of mulling over the poor turn of luck, she reached up to turn on a lamp, revealing a nice potbelly peaking out from underneath her grey shirt. She sat back into the couch, waiting for her fate to be complete, and absentmindedly swung her meaty, pink pajama clad, thighs back and forth underneath her wooden rocking chair, accidentally knocking off one of her fuzzy bunny slippers. Her faintly pudgy face and thicker-than-she-desired arms hinted at a jiggle as she crossed her arms over her large C sized, nearly D, breasts, which complimented her larger body rather nicely.
On the couch next to Susan, Tammy Gouche leaned forward, her long and straight red hair clinging slightly to the fabric. She quickly ran her hand across the side of her head, causing some hair to sit nicely atop her A breasts. Her stomach, clearly visible through the thin pink tank top that she tended to wear with her blue miniskirt, didn't even try to pudge as she stretched for the deck of cards on the table, pulling the standard two to begin her turn. It was a bit too far and she was forced to make a lunge, lifting her small but and slender thighs off of her seat.
As the Sheriff's Deputy, Tammy shot at the brunette with short wavy hair that was next to her on the couch, the only opponent that the game's rules allowed her to target in her given situation. Elise Dimeo leaned forward to pick up her cards, making her stomach, which only appeared to be flat, bunch a tad. She shuffled through her hand and pulled out the Missed! card to counter Tammy's Bang!. Tapping it against the words "Girl Power" that were printed on her shirt, which was itself stretched across rather shapely C breasts, she pondered if it would be better to absorb the hit and keep the card for an emergency. Setting the rest of her cards on the blue jeans she had borrowed from Susan (and, since she had shorter legs, they covered her white ankle-high socks a little), she triumphantly played the card, saving her character for now. Despairing at loosing the game (as she would when the Sheriff died), Tammy threw a "Jailed" card at Terri Evans, the girl next to Elise.
Elise had little to do in her own turn, as the Renegade she couldn't kill the Sheriff till the Outlaws were dead. She played the Salon card that she drew at the beginning of her turn, restoring everyone's health by one, including the Sheriff's.
Terri, the first of the Outlaws, nearly forgot to draw for the Jail! in her eagerness to shoot the Sheriff. The woman next sitting next to her reminded Terri just in time. Pulling the first card off the top of the deck and flipping it over, the heart at the corner of it allowed her to escape the jail without penalty. Being the shortest of the lot, at 4'11", she had to lean very far forward to even reach the table, causing her immaculately styled brown hair, tiered and highlighted quite skillfully, to cover her face, with its high cheek bones and slender chin. Rather than pudging as she bent, her stomach flexed her mighty abs which had put more than one male on campus to shame. When she sat back up straight, the cards on the table nearest her had been skewed by her almost comically large breasts; judging from the way that they generously overflowed Terri's D sized green bikini, none of the girls believed she was that size.
Tossing a Bang! card onto the table, being able to hit the Sheriff from where she was thanks to the rifle she had placed in play earlier, Susan was unable to do anything and took the hit. Terri looked to Molly, the other outlaw and final individual at the table, to finish up the game. The largest girl there, Molly actually stood an inch shorter than Terri but a good deal rounder, weighing in at twice the poundage of any other woman there. Still, for her height and size, she looked rather fit, with a radiant glow and fine tone that was the result of her summer spent trekking through most of South East Asia. Her clothing was actually quite baggy, having lost a substantial amount of weight with the constant walking and Asian eating. Triumphantly, she carefully placed down her one and only Bang! card, which she had just drawn at the beginning of her turn thanks to a bit of luck. Susan had nothing to stop the bullet, and her character died.
Looking rather forlorn at the turn of events, now that the game was over, Molly politely glanced at the wall clock and said that she had better be leaving. She had transferred to a different University and was only in town to see her old friends and roommates one last time; Susan Simons and Benjamin B. Welshton University happened to be on the way to Stanford, her new academic home. Giving each woman a hug in turn, and tearfully kissing Susan on the cheek, Molly left for perhaps the last time.
As the evening hours waned, after Tammy and Terri had gone to bed, Susan sat sprawled on the couch, munching on a bad of leftover corn chips - the salsa having run out a while ago - and starred blankly at a magazine. Elise had a printout of a course syllabus and was attempting to actually be ready for classes this semester. Her eyes continuously tried to close as she read about American Indians... or was it Differential Equations?
Before she had a chance to give up the ghost, however, Susan broke the silence. "Elise? I think I am going to lose some weight."
Snapping fully awake at the mention of losing weight, Elise looked at her friend. "It really isn't my place to say if you need to lose weight or not. Being healthy is always good, but beyond that I'd say to each her own. Mind if I ask what brought this up?"
Setting down her magazine, Susan stretched. "Well, seeing Molly for one. She looks good. And also, with her moving to Stanford, I'm now the biggest one here. I love her, but I guess it was sort of comforting to think that at least I wasn't as big as Molly is."
Elise decided to choose her words as carefully as she could, "Not that you aren't pretty, but I think Molly looks amazing, and she is still at least twice your weight, and a fair bit shorter to. If this is just about looks, do you really want to go through all the pain and suffering that comes with loosing weight?"
"Well, I would like to get a few more looks than I do when I walk across campus..."
Elise smiled, "Dear, you just have to keep your eyes open a bit more. You get them now."
"... and I do tend to eat as a sort of hobby. I mean, look at me now." Susan motioned to her crumb covered shirt.
"Maybe you need to find another hobby instead then. As for looks, as I've told you before..."
Susan rolled her eyes, "Not more of this philosophy of beauty stuff."
Elise stressed her words a little upon hearing this, "...as I have told you before, being confident in your beauty makes you beautiful. If you think it, you are. The McKenzie study in '97 showed that a person's perception of themself at a given moment alters what other people perceive them as."
Susan got up and hugged her friend. "You do know that I have no idea what you just said, right little Ms. Philosophy major? But I appreciate the sentiment... at least, I appreciate the sentiment that I think you expressed." She turned to head off to bed. "Hmmm, you know, I might take up cooking."
This time Elise couldn't help but laugh. "You want to lose weight and you will do this by taking up cooking? As they say, never trust a skinny chef."
"Hey, you never know. My mother is a wonderful cook, judging from how my father looks, and she is as thin as a rail. Maybe I inherited it from her."
Elise thought for a moment, then called out after Susan as she walked down the hallway. "Alright, you may have a point, but if you want to loose weight you can't sample your own food. I'll taste test for you, if you want, and I'll see if I can get Tammy and Terri to as well. We need to try some new things anyways. Who knows, maybe you'll make us bigger than Molly was."
"Before this last summer?"
Elise's eyes widened, "If you can cook that well, I will certainly be impressed. And in desperate need of new cloths, but mostly impressed."
Susan turned back around, but noticed Molly's empty room at the top of the stairs. "Hey, didn't you have someone lined up to move into the empty room?"
"Yeah, my old friend Sheila. I've known her since high school. She's originally from the Netherlands. Don't worry; she is well suited to taking the place of Molly. Last time I saw her, about two years ago, she weighed about 230 lb. She was snacking pretty heavily then too. I suppose I should warn you, she is a bit too nice and has a tendency to fatten other people up with her, if they aren't careful. Women tend to suffer the most damage from her, but it you saw a silhouette of her old boyfriend I doubt you could tell if he was standing up or laying down; she made him as round as a tire, only worse.”
Susan thought over this factoid as she said good night and went up the carpeted stair at the end of the hall, which led to the upstairs balcony hallway, past the large empty room that would soon be Sheila’s, and into her own. Setting her alarm, she flopped down onto her queen sized bed and snuggled into the oversized red comforter, falling asleep in minutes.
***
Waking up to the hideous, infernal wail of her alarm clock, Susan rolled over and fell out of bed, clawing her way into a standing position. "What the hell was I thinking, getting up this early? The dayball hasn't even risen yet."
Stumbling out of her room and nearly falling down the stairs, she focused all her efforts on making some coffee. The very smell helped wake her up and soon enough she was sipping on a rather larger mug (a soup mug, really) and preparing for her trip. She slipped on a skirt (only worn once before) and her largest shirt (which wasn't as large as it had been last semester), grabbed her purse, and went outside. In a minute she was back, having forgotten that she took out her wallet the other night to write a check for rent, and having forgotten shoes. Deciding that tying things took too much effort in the morning, Susan sought out a much-used pair of flip-flop sandals. It was still technically summer, she supposed, but she wished someone would tell the morning air that.
Leaving her deluxe apartment building (a town house, really, though the manager didn't call it as such) and hoping on her bike, she entered an entire world that late-risers seldom experienced; the quite, cob-webbed filled, dewy hours of the morning. She lived in what qualified as a city, but the campus itself (and thus the majority of student housing) was set in the older parts which still had the quaint look of a small town that just reeked of academia.
The streets would be crowded soon, but not yet. Parking her bike at the opposite edge of campus from where she lived, as the city had very few bike racks, she walked about another half a mile to the "Early Bird Bookstore," a little shop owned by an elderly, portly, and balding couple. Owen, the owner, waved a wrinkled hand gripping a duster at her as she entered. A large smile crossed his face, as Susan was one of his favorite customers. He called out to Edna, his wife, but she was already making her way towards the front of the store with a mug of homemade hot chocolate and a freshly baked "breakfast" cookie. She smiled happily at Susan, pushing the try towards her merrily, and asked what brought her in so early.
Huffing and puffing from her trip, she responded that she was looking for cookbooks and explained her new hobby to them. Owen shuffled spryly over to the cooking section and began to pull books with such speed that it seemed to be from memory. Edna came up behind and shooed him away, looking at the books he had already pulled, placing some back and taking others out. "What do you know about cooking?"
Puttering around to the other side of the shelf, Owen reached over and pulled his books back out. "Who do you think taught you in the first place?"
Rather quickly Susan found a rather impressive mound of books before her as she sat in a burgundy overstuffed armchair, sipping on her hot coco, nibbling on the cookie, and flipping through the books. Edna or Owen would occasionally look over and comment on the particular book she was looking at. "That one has the best Flan you'll ever taste, but the author must have let someone else write the recipe for the ginger chicken." "That one has the most addictive cinnamon rolls." "Owen pulled that book, dearie? Ignore it, unless you like bland food."
Perhaps she bought more than she had intended, but after hearing Edna and Owen describe the various recipes she couldn't resist. There were several on breakfast foods and dinner foods specifically, ethnic ones as well, old fashioned and health conscious, as well as several index cards with the couple's own recipes, "because good cooking isn't limited to books, you know."
Owen even offered to drive her to the grocery store, to stock up on ingredients that she had never heard of before but apparently needed, and dropped her off at her apartment. "Wish I could help you with those," he said, rubbing his hands, "but my grip just isn't what it used to be. I do love scrambled eggs, but not when the sidewalk is where they're cooked."
Susan thanked him profusely, hugged him, kissed him on the cheek (at which he blushed and chuckled gleefully, as if he never expected someone so young to do so), and slipped an extra twenty in his pocket to cover his time and gas. He helped he get her bike off the back of his car and finally drove back to the store.
At seven o'clock, or there about, she walked into what seemed to be a brand new kitchen (well, it had been remodeled over the summer), with its well-stocked refrigerator, gleaming clean counter tops, the new island they had put in, the dual oven, and gas stove. On counter was nearly covered with her cookbooks, several of which were now opened to this dish or that.
Opening the large (even her mother and father didn't have one so large) fridge, she began pulling out supplied, placed two frying pans on the stove, began to preheat the oven, and fished around for mixing bowls, knives, and measuring cups. She heaved one bag of flour (there were three more) out from one of the lower cabinets and began a baking spree.
Around eight o'clock Elise woke up to a smell that was utterly foreign to her. It took her nose a moment to recognize it as the smell of breakfast cooking (a bowl of cereal was fancy, in her opinion). During that moment her body had already found itself through her slightly open bedroom door and into the kitchen, where the smell was nearly overpowering to her (apparently) hungry stomach.
On the kitchen island, set next to mounds of dirty dishes, sat a variety of foods that the early morning wouldn't let her mind count. Bacon, three kinds of sausages, ham, donuts, bagels, four kinds of omelets (one for each of them, apparently), scrambled eggs, fried eggs, pancakes, and waffles. Susan was at the counter, nearly covered in flour, icing the last tray of cinnamon buns (another tray was set aside to cool).
Looking up, Susan smiled. "Good morning, Elise." Looking around, she realized what she had done and looked abashed. "I hope you don't mind that I got a bit carried away with the 'cooking breakfast' aspect of breakfast."
Before answering, Elise took a good look at Susan and realized that she looked quite cheerful; the flour on her face and cooking stains on her cloths seemed to accentuate her features nicely. Then, glancing at the veritable mountain of food, she found herself speechless. She could only nod that she didn't mind and Susan motioned for her to sit down. Giggling at herself, she gabbed a plate and began dishing up food for her roommate. There was a lot more than Elise usually ate, Susan knew that well, but the food needed to go somewhere and there was no way it would all refrigerate well.
Desiring to clean herself up a bit before tackling the mess in the kitchen, Susan set the overflowing plate before her friend and began heading upstairs. Turning back to see if Elise liked it, she saw a strange look in the other's eyes as she bit into a donut (cream filled). Then with an unusual ferocity that Elise only had shown before for a good book, she began to devour it and grabbed another before she was even done. Susan smiled at her success and then continued up to her room.
Stripping out of her now well-used clothes, Susan looked down at herself. Now that she had another hobby besides eating (and she was rather surprised to find that she liked cooking so much, Edna and Owen's recipes were a kick), she needed to work on getting rid of some of that flab. Remembering the look on Elise's face, something clicked in her mind. Part of what was disturbing her so much was that she was now the fattest one in the house. Exercise would help, but so would making everyone else fatter. If Elise was right, Sheila would help that along rather nicely as well. Things would be wonderful if she could get Tammy and Terri to put on some pounds as well, since she felt the worse going out with them. Compared to fit figures such as them, she always felt fat.
Given how well Elise took to her cooking, Susan didn't doubt she'd gain weight. The other two might prove a bit more of a challenge; Tammy had one of the fastest metabolisms ever. Terri might gain some weight if Susan could slowly get her hooked on her cooking; a blitz like the one against Elise would probably fail with Terri. Still, they didn't need to gain much weight, just enough to put them in the realm of mortals like her. As for Sheila, depending on how she actually looked, she might have to be fattened up as well, but Elise had indicated that she liked to snack. Susan grinned as she began formulating plans for her "assault" on the other girls.
When she came back downstairs, Susan she almost fell down the last few steps. The sight in front of her was outside of her frame of reference. It took a moment for her to even register what she was seeing, and it took her another moment just to rectify what she was with what she thought she knew about reality.
Tammy lay on the couch, rubbing her flat belly, but surrounded by three plates that had obviously held quite a bit of food not too long ago. Elise was still eating non-stop, much to Susan’s surprise. She wasn't going at it as fast as she had been, understandably, but Elise had never indicated that she liked big breakfasts before, or that she liked big any-meals. As Susan approached, she could see that Elise had pulled down her pajama bottoms a little to make room for a very bloated belly. Next to Elise, who rubbed her belly with one hand as she ate, sat Terri, still in her bikini from the other night. In front of Terri, however, was the devastation of countless donuts. Crumbs littered the table like fallen soldiers at Normandy, bits of pancakes and waffles rested on her chest, and there was still a group of a few donuts, which she gleefully nibbled on.
Glancing into the kitchen Susan was further astounded to see that the once feast-sized breakfast had been reduced to mostly scrap; though the three had saved a significant portion of everything for her. Grabbing a still-warm bagel, Susan suppressed a grin and walked over to a door on the opposite end of the living room. She opened it and went inside the room that she hadn't spent many hours in.
Terri and Tammy had turned what might have been intended as a small 5th bedroom or study into a workout room. She was lucky that both of them were fitness models (for local magazines and gyms), which resulted in a lot of equipment that was available for her to use to help her lose weight. Thinking back on the dishes in the kitchen, Susan almost thought that that might be enough workout for one day, but she steeled herself and got on the Stairmaster. The first fifteen minutes crawled by, which was made only slightly easier when Susan discovered she was attempting Terri's (or Tammy's) difficulty setting. Even after adjusting it, though, it seemed to take a lot out of her. Walking (well, stumbling) over to the mini fridge next to the Bow Flex, she pulled out a water and gulped half of it down in an instant. Feeling a bit cooler, she tackled the treadmill next. Five minutes in she was sure her body was causing her such pain out of spite. The next fifteen minutes were pure will, ended only by her legs giving out. She fell off the back of the treadmill and judiciously decided she was done for the day. Her grey shirt (the one she had worn the night before and which had now been dubbed her "work outfit") was drenched in sweat. It was too small for her now, but hopefully in another month that would be a different story. She sat down on the row machine for a second, to catch her breath and give her legs a moment to acknowledge signals from her brain again. With great effort she stood and realized that her shorts, which barely covered her behind, were so soaked that they left marks on the seat. Taking a towel to wipe away her sweat, she nearly fell over again. Deciding to give her legs a well earned break, she moved onto ab-improving exercises. Three push-ups seemed like a mistake afterwards, but that led into two crunches, the last of which nearly ripped her pants. Sitting down on the weight bench, she struggled with five-pound weights. Though her arms hadn't received the punishment that the rest of her body had, they seemed to be behaving in solidarity with her legs and barely worked. After a set of four reps for her right arm (a set of two reps for her left) she ended for the day.
When she left the room she was so soaked in sweat that it looked like she had just stepped out of a shower. Luckily for her, Tammy and Terri had gone out onto the deck to relax (and digest) in the Jacuzzi. Elise was reading a book (Susan's neck wouldn't turn enough to allow her to read the title). She looked up, visibly impressed, and commented as such. "Wow, it looks like you have a good start on the weight lose thing. Though don't hurt yourself."
Susan nodded and nearly fell forward when she did so; her skull seemed so heavy now. Stumbling to the bathroom, she barely was able to lower herself into the bathtub and turn on the water. Ice cold water poured out for a while before finally warming, but she didn't seem to notice. She soaked for a good twenty minutes before even beginning to clean herself. Afterwards she came down stairs, feeling uncomfortably exhausted, wearing a long but cool skirt and a Florida T-Shirt. Elise was still in her pajamas, monkey prints, and both Terri and Tammy were still out in the Jacuzzi. It was near noon and just then the doorbell rang. Both Elise and Susan walked over and opened it.
On their front porch (the porch light was still on from last night, Susan noticed) were two women. One of them, the shorter and by far thinner of the two, was maybe twenty-three and possibly out of college. The other, an amazingly fat woman who was almost triple the size Molly had been last night, smiled happily as Susan looked back, a bit aghast.
Elise stepped forward and hugged the large woman (or tried, as she couldn't get around her girth), then spoke up. "Susan, I would like you to meet my best friend from high school, Sheila. Sheila, my best friend from college, Susan."
Radiating good will, Sheila grabbed Susan's hand and shook it firmly. "Susan! Elise has told me wonderful things about you. And Elise, Susan, this is my cousin, Ileana. As I told you the other day, she just graduated with her bachelor's last year and is here for her doctorate work. I am so grateful that you are able to take her in.”
Susan did a double take. "Wait. I thought Elise said you were the one living with us."
Sheila laughed, "Did you Elise?! You must have misunderstood. Sorry, but I doubt you could... accommodate me regardless." She patted her paunch gingerly, which seemed rather stuffed currently. Sheila pushed her cousin forward a bit. "Well, I would love to stay longer, but I have to go. Places to see, buffets to clean out, and the ever pressing matter of work. Good luck, guys. Be good Ileana, I am sure you'll all get along wonderfully."
Even Ileana seemed a bit taken back by her cousin's abrupt exit; all three women watched Sheila walk to the parking lot. Susan found herself slightly surprised at her grace; she walked much lighter than her weight would otherwise suggest. Still, it was rather satisfying to see her van sag tremendously as Sheila climbed in and drove off, leaving her cousin standing on Susan and Elise's doorstep with three suitcases. The older women turned and smiled sheepishly. "Hello."
Regaining their composure, Elise and Susan greeted Ileana and tried to help her with her bags. Susan found she was still exhausted and sore from her workout - she was barely able to drag the suitcase across the room - and Elise found that she was too stuffed to carry the suitcase comfortable. Ileana barely noticed, coming back and fetching the bags from them after she had placed the first in Molly's old, now empty, room.
As she tramped back and forth Susan got a better look at the girl. Her hair was very dark, nearly raven black, and might have been waist length if it wasn't up in a style that Susan had never seen before, but which involved a lot of knots and loops.
Her skin was in stark contrast, giving a new meaning to the phrase "white as a sheet," and broken only by slightly rosy cheeks and her pale slate grey eyes. She seemed to walk slightly hunched, as if she spent most of her time bent over a desk (and, considering that she was getting a Doctorate, Susan supposed that she did), but curiously straightened herself at random, as though she caught herself in bad posture.
Dinner for Four
by Snorri Sturluson
(Inspired by the earlier work of Flaming Hades)
[Author's Note: For those of you who may remember, "Dinner for Four" was originally posted by Flaming_hades, who never continued to the work and the story was subsequently moved to the discard forum. I liked something about it, though I can't say what, and decided to rewrite and expand it. This is a rather heavy rewrite; if more than three consecutive words remain from Hades' original version, I would be surprised. Something to note is that this is not meant as a “wiki wiki weight gain” story, and I hope it doesn't come across as such.]
Part One
Five young women sat around an old, heavily used, coffee table. They chatted animatedly about their summers - where they traveled, what they did, who they dated - while playing a fast paced game of BANG! A few rays of the amber August evening illuminated the otherwise poorly lit room.
Susan Barker, a chubby woman with long dirty blond hair, knew she had lost the moment she played her last BANG! card and missed. As the Sheriff, with only one bullet of life left, there was no way she'd survive another round. Instead of mulling over the poor turn of luck, she reached up to turn on a lamp, revealing a nice potbelly peaking out from underneath her grey shirt. She sat back into the couch, waiting for her fate to be complete, and absentmindedly swung her meaty, pink pajama clad, thighs back and forth underneath her wooden rocking chair, accidentally knocking off one of her fuzzy bunny slippers. Her faintly pudgy face and thicker-than-she-desired arms hinted at a jiggle as she crossed her arms over her large C sized, nearly D, breasts, which complimented her larger body rather nicely.
On the couch next to Susan, Tammy Gouche leaned forward, her long and straight red hair clinging slightly to the fabric. She quickly ran her hand across the side of her head, causing some hair to sit nicely atop her A breasts. Her stomach, clearly visible through the thin pink tank top that she tended to wear with her blue miniskirt, didn't even try to pudge as she stretched for the deck of cards on the table, pulling the standard two to begin her turn. It was a bit too far and she was forced to make a lunge, lifting her small but and slender thighs off of her seat.
As the Sheriff's Deputy, Tammy shot at the brunette with short wavy hair that was next to her on the couch, the only opponent that the game's rules allowed her to target in her given situation. Elise Dimeo leaned forward to pick up her cards, making her stomach, which only appeared to be flat, bunch a tad. She shuffled through her hand and pulled out the Missed! card to counter Tammy's Bang!. Tapping it against the words "Girl Power" that were printed on her shirt, which was itself stretched across rather shapely C breasts, she pondered if it would be better to absorb the hit and keep the card for an emergency. Setting the rest of her cards on the blue jeans she had borrowed from Susan (and, since she had shorter legs, they covered her white ankle-high socks a little), she triumphantly played the card, saving her character for now. Despairing at loosing the game (as she would when the Sheriff died), Tammy threw a "Jailed" card at Terri Evans, the girl next to Elise.
Elise had little to do in her own turn, as the Renegade she couldn't kill the Sheriff till the Outlaws were dead. She played the Salon card that she drew at the beginning of her turn, restoring everyone's health by one, including the Sheriff's.
Terri, the first of the Outlaws, nearly forgot to draw for the Jail! in her eagerness to shoot the Sheriff. The woman next sitting next to her reminded Terri just in time. Pulling the first card off the top of the deck and flipping it over, the heart at the corner of it allowed her to escape the jail without penalty. Being the shortest of the lot, at 4'11", she had to lean very far forward to even reach the table, causing her immaculately styled brown hair, tiered and highlighted quite skillfully, to cover her face, with its high cheek bones and slender chin. Rather than pudging as she bent, her stomach flexed her mighty abs which had put more than one male on campus to shame. When she sat back up straight, the cards on the table nearest her had been skewed by her almost comically large breasts; judging from the way that they generously overflowed Terri's D sized green bikini, none of the girls believed she was that size.
Tossing a Bang! card onto the table, being able to hit the Sheriff from where she was thanks to the rifle she had placed in play earlier, Susan was unable to do anything and took the hit. Terri looked to Molly, the other outlaw and final individual at the table, to finish up the game. The largest girl there, Molly actually stood an inch shorter than Terri but a good deal rounder, weighing in at twice the poundage of any other woman there. Still, for her height and size, she looked rather fit, with a radiant glow and fine tone that was the result of her summer spent trekking through most of South East Asia. Her clothing was actually quite baggy, having lost a substantial amount of weight with the constant walking and Asian eating. Triumphantly, she carefully placed down her one and only Bang! card, which she had just drawn at the beginning of her turn thanks to a bit of luck. Susan had nothing to stop the bullet, and her character died.
Looking rather forlorn at the turn of events, now that the game was over, Molly politely glanced at the wall clock and said that she had better be leaving. She had transferred to a different University and was only in town to see her old friends and roommates one last time; Susan Simons and Benjamin B. Welshton University happened to be on the way to Stanford, her new academic home. Giving each woman a hug in turn, and tearfully kissing Susan on the cheek, Molly left for perhaps the last time.
As the evening hours waned, after Tammy and Terri had gone to bed, Susan sat sprawled on the couch, munching on a bad of leftover corn chips - the salsa having run out a while ago - and starred blankly at a magazine. Elise had a printout of a course syllabus and was attempting to actually be ready for classes this semester. Her eyes continuously tried to close as she read about American Indians... or was it Differential Equations?
Before she had a chance to give up the ghost, however, Susan broke the silence. "Elise? I think I am going to lose some weight."
Snapping fully awake at the mention of losing weight, Elise looked at her friend. "It really isn't my place to say if you need to lose weight or not. Being healthy is always good, but beyond that I'd say to each her own. Mind if I ask what brought this up?"
Setting down her magazine, Susan stretched. "Well, seeing Molly for one. She looks good. And also, with her moving to Stanford, I'm now the biggest one here. I love her, but I guess it was sort of comforting to think that at least I wasn't as big as Molly is."
Elise decided to choose her words as carefully as she could, "Not that you aren't pretty, but I think Molly looks amazing, and she is still at least twice your weight, and a fair bit shorter to. If this is just about looks, do you really want to go through all the pain and suffering that comes with loosing weight?"
"Well, I would like to get a few more looks than I do when I walk across campus..."
Elise smiled, "Dear, you just have to keep your eyes open a bit more. You get them now."
"... and I do tend to eat as a sort of hobby. I mean, look at me now." Susan motioned to her crumb covered shirt.
"Maybe you need to find another hobby instead then. As for looks, as I've told you before..."
Susan rolled her eyes, "Not more of this philosophy of beauty stuff."
Elise stressed her words a little upon hearing this, "...as I have told you before, being confident in your beauty makes you beautiful. If you think it, you are. The McKenzie study in '97 showed that a person's perception of themself at a given moment alters what other people perceive them as."
Susan got up and hugged her friend. "You do know that I have no idea what you just said, right little Ms. Philosophy major? But I appreciate the sentiment... at least, I appreciate the sentiment that I think you expressed." She turned to head off to bed. "Hmmm, you know, I might take up cooking."
This time Elise couldn't help but laugh. "You want to lose weight and you will do this by taking up cooking? As they say, never trust a skinny chef."
"Hey, you never know. My mother is a wonderful cook, judging from how my father looks, and she is as thin as a rail. Maybe I inherited it from her."
Elise thought for a moment, then called out after Susan as she walked down the hallway. "Alright, you may have a point, but if you want to loose weight you can't sample your own food. I'll taste test for you, if you want, and I'll see if I can get Tammy and Terri to as well. We need to try some new things anyways. Who knows, maybe you'll make us bigger than Molly was."
"Before this last summer?"
Elise's eyes widened, "If you can cook that well, I will certainly be impressed. And in desperate need of new cloths, but mostly impressed."
Susan turned back around, but noticed Molly's empty room at the top of the stairs. "Hey, didn't you have someone lined up to move into the empty room?"
"Yeah, my old friend Sheila. I've known her since high school. She's originally from the Netherlands. Don't worry; she is well suited to taking the place of Molly. Last time I saw her, about two years ago, she weighed about 230 lb. She was snacking pretty heavily then too. I suppose I should warn you, she is a bit too nice and has a tendency to fatten other people up with her, if they aren't careful. Women tend to suffer the most damage from her, but it you saw a silhouette of her old boyfriend I doubt you could tell if he was standing up or laying down; she made him as round as a tire, only worse.”
Susan thought over this factoid as she said good night and went up the carpeted stair at the end of the hall, which led to the upstairs balcony hallway, past the large empty room that would soon be Sheila’s, and into her own. Setting her alarm, she flopped down onto her queen sized bed and snuggled into the oversized red comforter, falling asleep in minutes.
***
Waking up to the hideous, infernal wail of her alarm clock, Susan rolled over and fell out of bed, clawing her way into a standing position. "What the hell was I thinking, getting up this early? The dayball hasn't even risen yet."
Stumbling out of her room and nearly falling down the stairs, she focused all her efforts on making some coffee. The very smell helped wake her up and soon enough she was sipping on a rather larger mug (a soup mug, really) and preparing for her trip. She slipped on a skirt (only worn once before) and her largest shirt (which wasn't as large as it had been last semester), grabbed her purse, and went outside. In a minute she was back, having forgotten that she took out her wallet the other night to write a check for rent, and having forgotten shoes. Deciding that tying things took too much effort in the morning, Susan sought out a much-used pair of flip-flop sandals. It was still technically summer, she supposed, but she wished someone would tell the morning air that.
Leaving her deluxe apartment building (a town house, really, though the manager didn't call it as such) and hoping on her bike, she entered an entire world that late-risers seldom experienced; the quite, cob-webbed filled, dewy hours of the morning. She lived in what qualified as a city, but the campus itself (and thus the majority of student housing) was set in the older parts which still had the quaint look of a small town that just reeked of academia.
The streets would be crowded soon, but not yet. Parking her bike at the opposite edge of campus from where she lived, as the city had very few bike racks, she walked about another half a mile to the "Early Bird Bookstore," a little shop owned by an elderly, portly, and balding couple. Owen, the owner, waved a wrinkled hand gripping a duster at her as she entered. A large smile crossed his face, as Susan was one of his favorite customers. He called out to Edna, his wife, but she was already making her way towards the front of the store with a mug of homemade hot chocolate and a freshly baked "breakfast" cookie. She smiled happily at Susan, pushing the try towards her merrily, and asked what brought her in so early.
Huffing and puffing from her trip, she responded that she was looking for cookbooks and explained her new hobby to them. Owen shuffled spryly over to the cooking section and began to pull books with such speed that it seemed to be from memory. Edna came up behind and shooed him away, looking at the books he had already pulled, placing some back and taking others out. "What do you know about cooking?"
Puttering around to the other side of the shelf, Owen reached over and pulled his books back out. "Who do you think taught you in the first place?"
Rather quickly Susan found a rather impressive mound of books before her as she sat in a burgundy overstuffed armchair, sipping on her hot coco, nibbling on the cookie, and flipping through the books. Edna or Owen would occasionally look over and comment on the particular book she was looking at. "That one has the best Flan you'll ever taste, but the author must have let someone else write the recipe for the ginger chicken." "That one has the most addictive cinnamon rolls." "Owen pulled that book, dearie? Ignore it, unless you like bland food."
Perhaps she bought more than she had intended, but after hearing Edna and Owen describe the various recipes she couldn't resist. There were several on breakfast foods and dinner foods specifically, ethnic ones as well, old fashioned and health conscious, as well as several index cards with the couple's own recipes, "because good cooking isn't limited to books, you know."
Owen even offered to drive her to the grocery store, to stock up on ingredients that she had never heard of before but apparently needed, and dropped her off at her apartment. "Wish I could help you with those," he said, rubbing his hands, "but my grip just isn't what it used to be. I do love scrambled eggs, but not when the sidewalk is where they're cooked."
Susan thanked him profusely, hugged him, kissed him on the cheek (at which he blushed and chuckled gleefully, as if he never expected someone so young to do so), and slipped an extra twenty in his pocket to cover his time and gas. He helped he get her bike off the back of his car and finally drove back to the store.
At seven o'clock, or there about, she walked into what seemed to be a brand new kitchen (well, it had been remodeled over the summer), with its well-stocked refrigerator, gleaming clean counter tops, the new island they had put in, the dual oven, and gas stove. On counter was nearly covered with her cookbooks, several of which were now opened to this dish or that.
Opening the large (even her mother and father didn't have one so large) fridge, she began pulling out supplied, placed two frying pans on the stove, began to preheat the oven, and fished around for mixing bowls, knives, and measuring cups. She heaved one bag of flour (there were three more) out from one of the lower cabinets and began a baking spree.
Around eight o'clock Elise woke up to a smell that was utterly foreign to her. It took her nose a moment to recognize it as the smell of breakfast cooking (a bowl of cereal was fancy, in her opinion). During that moment her body had already found itself through her slightly open bedroom door and into the kitchen, where the smell was nearly overpowering to her (apparently) hungry stomach.
On the kitchen island, set next to mounds of dirty dishes, sat a variety of foods that the early morning wouldn't let her mind count. Bacon, three kinds of sausages, ham, donuts, bagels, four kinds of omelets (one for each of them, apparently), scrambled eggs, fried eggs, pancakes, and waffles. Susan was at the counter, nearly covered in flour, icing the last tray of cinnamon buns (another tray was set aside to cool).
Looking up, Susan smiled. "Good morning, Elise." Looking around, she realized what she had done and looked abashed. "I hope you don't mind that I got a bit carried away with the 'cooking breakfast' aspect of breakfast."
Before answering, Elise took a good look at Susan and realized that she looked quite cheerful; the flour on her face and cooking stains on her cloths seemed to accentuate her features nicely. Then, glancing at the veritable mountain of food, she found herself speechless. She could only nod that she didn't mind and Susan motioned for her to sit down. Giggling at herself, she gabbed a plate and began dishing up food for her roommate. There was a lot more than Elise usually ate, Susan knew that well, but the food needed to go somewhere and there was no way it would all refrigerate well.
Desiring to clean herself up a bit before tackling the mess in the kitchen, Susan set the overflowing plate before her friend and began heading upstairs. Turning back to see if Elise liked it, she saw a strange look in the other's eyes as she bit into a donut (cream filled). Then with an unusual ferocity that Elise only had shown before for a good book, she began to devour it and grabbed another before she was even done. Susan smiled at her success and then continued up to her room.
Stripping out of her now well-used clothes, Susan looked down at herself. Now that she had another hobby besides eating (and she was rather surprised to find that she liked cooking so much, Edna and Owen's recipes were a kick), she needed to work on getting rid of some of that flab. Remembering the look on Elise's face, something clicked in her mind. Part of what was disturbing her so much was that she was now the fattest one in the house. Exercise would help, but so would making everyone else fatter. If Elise was right, Sheila would help that along rather nicely as well. Things would be wonderful if she could get Tammy and Terri to put on some pounds as well, since she felt the worse going out with them. Compared to fit figures such as them, she always felt fat.
Given how well Elise took to her cooking, Susan didn't doubt she'd gain weight. The other two might prove a bit more of a challenge; Tammy had one of the fastest metabolisms ever. Terri might gain some weight if Susan could slowly get her hooked on her cooking; a blitz like the one against Elise would probably fail with Terri. Still, they didn't need to gain much weight, just enough to put them in the realm of mortals like her. As for Sheila, depending on how she actually looked, she might have to be fattened up as well, but Elise had indicated that she liked to snack. Susan grinned as she began formulating plans for her "assault" on the other girls.
When she came back downstairs, Susan she almost fell down the last few steps. The sight in front of her was outside of her frame of reference. It took a moment for her to even register what she was seeing, and it took her another moment just to rectify what she was with what she thought she knew about reality.
Tammy lay on the couch, rubbing her flat belly, but surrounded by three plates that had obviously held quite a bit of food not too long ago. Elise was still eating non-stop, much to Susan’s surprise. She wasn't going at it as fast as she had been, understandably, but Elise had never indicated that she liked big breakfasts before, or that she liked big any-meals. As Susan approached, she could see that Elise had pulled down her pajama bottoms a little to make room for a very bloated belly. Next to Elise, who rubbed her belly with one hand as she ate, sat Terri, still in her bikini from the other night. In front of Terri, however, was the devastation of countless donuts. Crumbs littered the table like fallen soldiers at Normandy, bits of pancakes and waffles rested on her chest, and there was still a group of a few donuts, which she gleefully nibbled on.
Glancing into the kitchen Susan was further astounded to see that the once feast-sized breakfast had been reduced to mostly scrap; though the three had saved a significant portion of everything for her. Grabbing a still-warm bagel, Susan suppressed a grin and walked over to a door on the opposite end of the living room. She opened it and went inside the room that she hadn't spent many hours in.
Terri and Tammy had turned what might have been intended as a small 5th bedroom or study into a workout room. She was lucky that both of them were fitness models (for local magazines and gyms), which resulted in a lot of equipment that was available for her to use to help her lose weight. Thinking back on the dishes in the kitchen, Susan almost thought that that might be enough workout for one day, but she steeled herself and got on the Stairmaster. The first fifteen minutes crawled by, which was made only slightly easier when Susan discovered she was attempting Terri's (or Tammy's) difficulty setting. Even after adjusting it, though, it seemed to take a lot out of her. Walking (well, stumbling) over to the mini fridge next to the Bow Flex, she pulled out a water and gulped half of it down in an instant. Feeling a bit cooler, she tackled the treadmill next. Five minutes in she was sure her body was causing her such pain out of spite. The next fifteen minutes were pure will, ended only by her legs giving out. She fell off the back of the treadmill and judiciously decided she was done for the day. Her grey shirt (the one she had worn the night before and which had now been dubbed her "work outfit") was drenched in sweat. It was too small for her now, but hopefully in another month that would be a different story. She sat down on the row machine for a second, to catch her breath and give her legs a moment to acknowledge signals from her brain again. With great effort she stood and realized that her shorts, which barely covered her behind, were so soaked that they left marks on the seat. Taking a towel to wipe away her sweat, she nearly fell over again. Deciding to give her legs a well earned break, she moved onto ab-improving exercises. Three push-ups seemed like a mistake afterwards, but that led into two crunches, the last of which nearly ripped her pants. Sitting down on the weight bench, she struggled with five-pound weights. Though her arms hadn't received the punishment that the rest of her body had, they seemed to be behaving in solidarity with her legs and barely worked. After a set of four reps for her right arm (a set of two reps for her left) she ended for the day.
When she left the room she was so soaked in sweat that it looked like she had just stepped out of a shower. Luckily for her, Tammy and Terri had gone out onto the deck to relax (and digest) in the Jacuzzi. Elise was reading a book (Susan's neck wouldn't turn enough to allow her to read the title). She looked up, visibly impressed, and commented as such. "Wow, it looks like you have a good start on the weight lose thing. Though don't hurt yourself."
Susan nodded and nearly fell forward when she did so; her skull seemed so heavy now. Stumbling to the bathroom, she barely was able to lower herself into the bathtub and turn on the water. Ice cold water poured out for a while before finally warming, but she didn't seem to notice. She soaked for a good twenty minutes before even beginning to clean herself. Afterwards she came down stairs, feeling uncomfortably exhausted, wearing a long but cool skirt and a Florida T-Shirt. Elise was still in her pajamas, monkey prints, and both Terri and Tammy were still out in the Jacuzzi. It was near noon and just then the doorbell rang. Both Elise and Susan walked over and opened it.
On their front porch (the porch light was still on from last night, Susan noticed) were two women. One of them, the shorter and by far thinner of the two, was maybe twenty-three and possibly out of college. The other, an amazingly fat woman who was almost triple the size Molly had been last night, smiled happily as Susan looked back, a bit aghast.
Elise stepped forward and hugged the large woman (or tried, as she couldn't get around her girth), then spoke up. "Susan, I would like you to meet my best friend from high school, Sheila. Sheila, my best friend from college, Susan."
Radiating good will, Sheila grabbed Susan's hand and shook it firmly. "Susan! Elise has told me wonderful things about you. And Elise, Susan, this is my cousin, Ileana. As I told you the other day, she just graduated with her bachelor's last year and is here for her doctorate work. I am so grateful that you are able to take her in.”
Susan did a double take. "Wait. I thought Elise said you were the one living with us."
Sheila laughed, "Did you Elise?! You must have misunderstood. Sorry, but I doubt you could... accommodate me regardless." She patted her paunch gingerly, which seemed rather stuffed currently. Sheila pushed her cousin forward a bit. "Well, I would love to stay longer, but I have to go. Places to see, buffets to clean out, and the ever pressing matter of work. Good luck, guys. Be good Ileana, I am sure you'll all get along wonderfully."
Even Ileana seemed a bit taken back by her cousin's abrupt exit; all three women watched Sheila walk to the parking lot. Susan found herself slightly surprised at her grace; she walked much lighter than her weight would otherwise suggest. Still, it was rather satisfying to see her van sag tremendously as Sheila climbed in and drove off, leaving her cousin standing on Susan and Elise's doorstep with three suitcases. The older women turned and smiled sheepishly. "Hello."
Regaining their composure, Elise and Susan greeted Ileana and tried to help her with her bags. Susan found she was still exhausted and sore from her workout - she was barely able to drag the suitcase across the room - and Elise found that she was too stuffed to carry the suitcase comfortable. Ileana barely noticed, coming back and fetching the bags from them after she had placed the first in Molly's old, now empty, room.
As she tramped back and forth Susan got a better look at the girl. Her hair was very dark, nearly raven black, and might have been waist length if it wasn't up in a style that Susan had never seen before, but which involved a lot of knots and loops.
Her skin was in stark contrast, giving a new meaning to the phrase "white as a sheet," and broken only by slightly rosy cheeks and her pale slate grey eyes. She seemed to walk slightly hunched, as if she spent most of her time bent over a desk (and, considering that she was getting a Doctorate, Susan supposed that she did), but curiously straightened herself at random, as though she caught herself in bad posture.
